May 19th

Day two of our trapping cycle started with a finding a mouse in one of the pitfalls at Dry Bay. It was a deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) and had no ticks. I watched as Kaety and Dr. Burke processed her so that I could learn how to check for ticks and weigh her. Once they were finished I held her, my first experience holding a wild mouse. It was so much fun, all you have to do is grab hold of the tail and pin her down on her stomach. Once in this position you just grab as much scruff on the back of the neck and hold on. When you have this kind of grab they can’t turn their head far enough around to bite you and it also doesn’t hurt them. We also found a few more broad-headed skinks (Plestiodon laticeps) and 5-lined skinks (Plestiodon fasciatus) in the pitfalls. Several amphibians were found including the northern slimy salamander (Plethodon glutinosus). I’ve never seen one before, at first it was covered in sand from being in the pitfall, so we covered it with water and instantly it began to secrete a mucus so sticky that my fingers got stuck together and anything else they happened to touch. It even stayed on after I pour water on it, to get it off I had to scrub it with a leaf and more water.
Once we finished at Dry Bay we headed over to Four Mile to check the small mammal traps, unfortunately we didn’t catch anything. So we got to work digging the pitfalls. If this was in a field oh how easy it would be, granted compared to other places where the flora is much denser but some buckets were quite easy, others not so much. Several buckets had thick tree roots across the entire width of the bucket hole. Let’s just say it was a long day and we only got 3 pitfalls done. Luckily we only have 1 more to do at this site and it will be completely ready to go.